In the hours leading up to the MV Hondius' arrival at the industrial port of Granadilla de Abona, in south Tenerife, there was an escalating war of words that laid bare the tensions between the two administrations involved in managing the hantavirus outbreak.
The president of the Canary Islands government, Fernando Clavijo, accused the central government of failing to respond to a specific request: that passengers still awaiting transfer be flown out on a Spanish military aircraft which, he said, had capacity for 210 people but was due to travel with only 14 on board.
